Issues Abound Tracking Efficacy And Effectiveness In Clinical Trials

A recent JAMA paper assesses the progress of ClinicalTrials.gov, concluding that concerns continue around the use of best methods for generating evidence and the capacity of the clinical trials enterprise to supply the high quality evidence needed to ensure confidence in guidelines. That these issues hold for interventional trials suggests that other strands of clinical research, notably those focused on comparative effectiveness, face similar if not even greater challenges to be able to provide meaningful real-world evidence.